


Not-Shock Treatment

by Celandine



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Angst, Drama, Ficlet, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-04-14
Updated: 2010-04-14
Packaged: 2017-10-12 12:15:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/124725
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Celandine/pseuds/Celandine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jim's physical injuries are usually easy to treat. The psychological ones, on the other hand...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not-Shock Treatment

It would be nice if – just for once – Jim could manage to interact with a previously-unknown alien race and _not_ come back to the _Enterprise_ with some sort of damage that he, Leonard, had to fix. The physical injuries were usually relatively easy to treat; the mental/emotional/psychological ones, not so much.

He looked at his captain and lover sitting crouched in in the middle of the room, rocking back and forth and humming to himself. Jim flinched when any adult man came near, even Leonard, and he didn't seem very trusting even of Christine or the other female nurses, either. Time and effort would be needed to deal with whatever traumas were bothering him, to bring him psychologically back to his own age, but they didn't _have_ the time, damn it. Spock had informed Leonard solemnly that the captain's presence was required at an important Starfleet conference in just over two weeks, which meant that Leonard had better get him patched up by then. Somehow. Leonard's scowl of dismay faded as he recalled an article he read recently, a revival of an old style of therapy.

When Jim was happily at play with the finger paints that Scotty had managed to persuade the ship's synthesizers to create, Leonard entered the room and sat cross-legged a little distance away. Jim glanced at him out of the corner of his eye, but when Leonard made no attempt to come closer, he seemed to relax and continued painting. The picture was full of blacks and reds, and portrayed a large scowling man.

"Who's that?" Leonard ventured after a while, although he had a pretty good idea. The point was to get Jim talking, to figure out what was going on in his head and help him develop strategies to cope with whatever it might be.

"Frank," said Jim after a long pause.

"He looks mean."

"Yeah." Jim studied his painting for a while, then pushed it aside and grabbed a fresh sheet of paper.

At first Leonard thought that Jim was now painting an angel, for the new figure was mostly in green and blue and had wings, but when he was finished, Jim said, "This is my mama."

"She's very pretty," said Leonard politely. "Is she flying?"

"Yeah. Flying away." Jim's lip wobbled a little as he reached for another sheet. "But she really flies in a _spaceship_ ," he said, and began to paint one in vivid purple and orange. "If I'm good, maybe I can go with her sometime, but I don't know if I want to. Space takes people away from you."

"It can bring people _to_ you, as well," said Leonard.

Jim cocked his head to look directly at Leonard for the first time. "It can?"

"Yes," Leonard nodded, "and it can let you leave bad people behind, too, like Frank.""

That seemed to trigger something in Jim, for he reached again for the picture of Frank, dipped his fingers in a pot of yellow paint, and slowly drew what looked like a lightning bolt over the figure, almost blotting it out. "That's the fire from the ship taking off and leaving him on the ground," said Jim with great satisfaction in his voice.

"Yes," Leonard whispered. He knew that this was only the beginning of bringing Jim back to become again the man he had been, but it _was_ a beginning.

**Author's Note:**

> For inell, who wanted Kirk/McCoy, fingerpaint.


End file.
